I put it up on CL and in less than two hours had a buyer. He and I spoke for a while, and I think the Uni will get the attention it deserves and get back to work for another 46 years of service!

The bearings in the 3hp, 1ph motor and in the arbor are good, though the belts should be replaced. I’ll get to that soon.

The fence was missing, though it came with a set of Vega rails (useless to me now). I received a 52” Unifence rail and fence from a friend for free this summer and adapted it to work. Unfortunately, the tabs on the center table had already been drilled such that they wouldn’t work, so I had to drill into the extension tables to mount the rail. I originally wanted to replace the right table with my Rockler router table and then cut the rail short to match, but I’ll just mount it to the outside of the table and leave the rail full length. The right wing was drilled in two spots for a power feeder; I have a feeder on my shaper, so I think I’ll put it to use.

As of now, it’s almost ready to go. It needs a new scale applied to the rail, as the old one was badly rusted and is now no longer lined up properly in relation to the blade. I need to study the manual and figure out how to mount the splitter and blade guard. I’m waiting for a mobile base to arrive; it’s a necessity in my small garage shop, especially with six other “stationary” tools. The table top also needs some attention with WD-40 and a Scotch pad; there’s a bit of surface rust, but no pitting.

Once I get all those things done, I’ll then build a cross cutting sled and a folding out feed table. I might build a small storage cabinet to hand under the right side to house the router and offer up a drawer or two to store bits; if nothing else, I can hang peg board on it for arbor wrenches and blades.

The pics are pretty crappy, but I’ll get better shots after I clean it up some more and have better lighting.

I’ll start a thread for each piece from it that I refurb. Some of it I sold to buy other tools; some I traded for tools I needed.

The first “refurb” is the Belsaw 9103, circa mid-70’s. From what I’ve read on line and at www.owwm.org, it’s a beast and a real workhorse. Parts are still available for it today, surprisingly enough. It was sold under many labels, including Craftsman. It came with motors ranging from 2 to 5 horses. The three cutter head apparently can hog off 1/8” at a time and ask for more. Dust collection is its weak spot, due to its open design, but there are some work arounds, like adding a hood across the exhaust. It won’t be as clean as my benchtop 13” Rigid, with its form-fitting plastic dust shroud, but it’ll be quieter and better, I think.

Here it is as I picked it up:

And just before I started tearing it down:

I was surprised at how simple this thing is to take apart. There aren’t many pieces or many bolts holding it together. I did find that the belt that drives the cutter head is shot beyond repair. The two motor belts appear to be fine. I’m not sure about the cutter head’s bearings, so I’ll replace them just to be safe. The rubber foam on the infeed roller is distorted badly, so I’ll replace that—it’s only available as a whole assembly, which is about $50. I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled the motor out, though. I was expecting the 2hp motor, but found it’s the 5hp monster.

More images to show its simplicity:

Here it is torn down to just the bed, stand, and columns:

I got the stand painted, along with a few other pieces, like the uprights (not shown) and the bottom of the table.

Once I figure out how to disassemble the cutter head I’ll continue on and post up more pics.

Once I get things settled down, I’ll get back to bringing the Uni back on line. Don’t worry, it’s staying put!

These pics were taken with my phone; I’ll get much better pix with my camera in daylight when it’s all done.

We’re going with fire engine red for the base and stand, with black for the very bottom of the base and black on the boxes, switch cover, etc.

Pics to follow.

An hour and a half in, and there is already rust floating on the surface and a steady stream of O2 and H2 bubbles coming off the rebar pieces.

I’ll put more pics up as it progresses. I’m hoping to get the base finished and primered this weekend.

Update….

After about 18 hours of sitting, there is a noticeable difference. The electrolysis had stopped working (or had slowed so much it wasn’t visible) because the rebar pieces were covered in rust. I was working conservatively, so I only used two pieces and the water level was low. To speed things up, I’ve filled the container further and added three more pieces of rebar. I also pulled the two original pieces, and under running water, scrubbed them with a steel brush to “refresh” them.

Started it back up and the bubbles started flowing again.

Before and after:

The black is fresh, clean cast iron:

Ugly stuff, ain’t it?

MOAR pics!

I got it mostly torn down and found out it appears to be in really good shape. There were three missing bolts (so far)—two for the table top (out of five) and the bolt that holds the motor in place is missing.

I’ll replace the square nuts that secure the base to the stand with regular hex nuts—it took me nearly 20 minutes to get them off!

The ways that the motor rotates on are VERY clean. The gears look pretty good with a bit of surface rust.

It raises and tilts pretty smoothly, though it takes much more effort to raise the motor and tilt it over than it does to bring it back down from raised or from 45*. I have to find out if this is normal.

The arbor bearings are shot, as I expected, and the belts are permanently oval shaped. Again, the plan was to replace them, too.

The splitter/anti-kickback pawl assembly sticks, so I’ll play with that to see if I can get it to work better.

Looking at the flaking chrome on the handwheels—what do you guys recommend? I’m not at ALL worried about making this OEM new. I want it to work well and look good, though. Should I wire wheel them and then paint them? I’m thinking a rough, textured paint to help hide the flaws. Maybe a bed liner type paint.

I will be cutting a hole to add a dust port and filling in the empty bottom with a sloping shelf to direct sawdust to the port. After painting the access door, I may tape up the backside of it to improve suction through the table top.

Don’t mind the awkward narration in the first episode; it gets better in the following episodes as he starts working on the saw:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pshGOUg0hG0

Instead of leaving the rusty patina of a long life on the saw, I’ll sand it with my ROS and give it a new face. I don’t know what color I’ll do yet, though…I’m leaning away from the original Delta gray.

Who knows…maybe a candy red or something loud like that…

He wasn’t home, but his wife and son were there to help load it. They bought it about 15 years ago with him saying, “I’ll get it running one day.” That day never happened, and he found a brand new Uni that he loved and jumped on it.

His wife and son were really nice, friendly folk, and Shyanne got to run around on the farm, chasing chickens, while we loaded it up.

I don’t know any details, aside from the fact that it’s a 3ph motor. I’ll find out age, etc., later on, and decide whether I’ll get a phase converter or replace the motor with a 1ph 220V piece.

I’m really, really happy right now. And in a bit of shock.

Well…as part of the home hunt, my only requirement was that there be an enclosed, powered garage so I could set up a ww’ing shop. It took the past three years, but I have (mainly through CL) filled it with the basics for turning expensive lumber into expensive mulch. Discounting pens and bowls from the lathe, I finally recently finished my first piece of furniture, a blanket chest for the missus.

She now wants a new kitchen. I can’t blame her. The floor is institutional 12” square vinyl. It’s cracking in places because the floor flexes (undersized joists supporting the floor). The cabinets are a mix of painted wood and oak paneling; it doesn’t match. The sink is too small, the counter is ugly, and the oven/range is actually 5” NARROWER than the opening for it. There’s a stand alone unit against a wall that racks left and right if you put too much weight on it. There’s a set of cabinets hung randomly on the wall that makes no sense and matches nothing else.

So, when you have a big project like this, you can throw two things at it—time or money. Since we don’t have a whole lot of the latter, we have decided that we’ll throw time at it. What exactly does that mean? Well, the missus said that she’ll be happy if I do the cabinets a piece at a time. The upper cabinets are fine—they just need new face frames and doors. She’ll be happy if I can complete one frame and panel door every week, maybe two weeks. Right now I’m thinking that’s a feasible goal. Right now. We’ll see once I actually get into it.

This is where the planning starts. I have all the necessary tooling to complete the job, depending on the route I take. I don’t have a big router, so I don’t know if I can safely do arched frame-and-panel doors. I’ve had a certain tennoning jig in mind for my table saw, so square doors would be a cake walk, but I think the addition of arches would be nice. So I’ll look into how I might be able to accomplish it with my Bosch 1617EVS or I’ll talk to her about sinking money into a big 3hp router to spin larger bits safely.

I have lots of ww’ing, Handyman, and other home improvement magazines that have been sitting, collecting dust. Time to break those out for ideas. I’m also reading up on cabinet construction to wrap my mind around it.

As said above, the upper cabinet carcasses are fine. They’ll just need new face frames and doors. That should be fairly easy. The lower cabinets will be a lot more involved, though: The sink, dishwasher, and oven will be moved, new storage methods will be incorporated (more sliding drawers, less shelving), the wall-mounted oven will be moved, and the pantry will be rebuilt with sliding shelves. Because of this, I probably won’t start construction on that part until next spring, as we’ll need to plan it AND buy all the hardware, which is still pricey when doing it yourself.

So I’ll soon get some pictures up of what it looks like now and will hopefully have a happy ending some time next year. Keep your fingers crossed!

I haven’t picked this tool up yet; it’s at my buddy’s house. He was a woodworker and floor installer decades back, and a Harley mechanic after that. He’s actually the one holding my hand through my Chopper project. He recently found out that I’m a woodworker after seeing some pics of a blanket chest I’m building (it’ll be done soon; I’ll post up pics). He told me about this saw in his shed and said that it’s mine if I want it, otherwise it’s going to the scrap yard. I went to his house to take some pics and asked around at www.owwm.org about it; they said to jump on it. Most said it wouldn’t be an actual “upgrade” to my decade old Rigid TS2424, but that it would be a great dedicated cross cut or dado saw. Like all my other equipment, it’ll be mounted on a mobile base, as my shop is so small.

I won’t be doing a full refurb on it; I enjoy the aged patina on old tools. I’ll do what’s needed to get it running again—clean the trunions and table, replace all the bearings, replace all the plywood sheeting on it, and add a dust port. The wings are missing in these pics, but he has them, too.

Knowing my pace when working on projects, I won’t promise that this thing will move quickly; I just have too many things going on at one time. But I will post pics as I work on it and show it in action when it’s done.